


Trying Ink's Paint

by mathmusic8



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dream's the only sane one, Gen, Ink can be real jerk sometimes, Ink's Paint, Mostly just fun and games, One Shot, Positive ending, and they were ROOMMATES, brief angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24515398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mathmusic8/pseuds/mathmusic8
Summary: Just a little one shot I wrote. Everyone's probably super OOC. Paint color effects inspired by From Your Point of View by Sion, which was translated by TheGrinningKitten. Rumor!Sans is just a Sans from a fic I'm working on with a friend. He's an especially chill Sans who actually had a decently happy life, and he's a new roommate to the Star Sanses for . . . some reason? haha idk.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Trying Ink's Paint

Ink, Dream, Blue, and Rumor were all hanging around after lunch one day, just chilling. Rumor noticed Ink take his paint doses—one careful sip from each bottle—and, curious, he asked him about it.

So Ink casually explained his soullessness and how the paints made his emotions for him.

“Do they work on other people too, or just you?” Rumor asked.

Ink blinked a few times, his eyelights flashing between different colored exclamation points, squares, and question marks. “I actually don’t know! Wanna try some?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Dream asked, finally looking up from his phone. Apparently whoever he’d been texting wasn’t so important as to fully distract him from keeping a watch over the conversation.

Blue also looked up from his phone as Ink waved Dream’s concerns aside. “Sure! We’ll just do an itty bitty dose, and we’ll stick to the positive feelings! So, Rumor! Wanna try happiness or curiosity?”

Rumor took a moment to analyze the waves of anxiety pouring off of both Dream and Blue. They weren’t as concerned about the idea of this not working and getting him sick from drinking straight paint, Rumor realized, but that it _would_ work and be too much. At the same time, neither of them were protesting. They were probably just as curious as Ink was.

Although the idea of an instant happiness was appealing, Rumor decided to play it safe. “Curiosity. I’m already feeling that, anyway, so that might help move it along.”

“Okay!” Ink slipped the green vial from his sash and uncorked it. “Remember, just the tiniest drop you can manage!”

“I’m gonna record this,” Blue announced, raising his phone to a better angle.

Rumor took the green vial and eyed it for a moment. He turned to Ink and asked, “Mind if I use my finger?”

“Nope!” Ink shrugged.

Rumor looked back to Blue and Dream, who were now both pointing their phones at him. “You ready?”

“Yep,” Blue said and Dream nodded, so Rumor carefully dipped his pointer finger into the vial and pulled back as soon as he felt the liquid within. He passed Ink the bottle back and grinned at the three of them watching him.

“How much you wanna bet it’ll just taste like plain old paint?”

Dream laughed nervously while Blue rolled high eyes and Ink said, “It doesn’t.”

“We’ll see,” Rumor shrugged. He phased his finger through his teeth and his magic promptly absorbed the paint. His eyes widened at the taste. “Oh, wow.” He’d tasted that before, hadn’t he? Once, long ago . . . but what _was_ it? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, even though he scoured his childhood memories at the speed of light.

“Rumor?” Dream called, “How you feeling?”

Ink, Blue, and Dream watched Rumor’s eyelights get visibly larger as he started rambling. “This taste, it’s like—oohh, but what _is_ that? It’s like, like something I had as a kid, I think? Maybe some kind of candy? Like, it’s sweet, but not _great_ , like it tastes good, but you know that too much of it will rot your teeth out—OOHH, it’s like those hard candies, the pineapple ones! Were they pineapple? Wait, weren’t they strawberry flavored? They came in little pineapple wrappers, but I think there were strawberries on it, too? What was the flavor, though, strawberry or pineapple? Can someone look it up? Where’s my phone? Oh, there it is. Why is it way over . . . there . . . oh. Wow.”

Rumor’s eyelights suddenly shrank back down to their normal size, and he abruptly cut off his rant. “That was . . . wow. Okay. I think it wore off now.” He avoided looking at any of his friends, preferring to stare off in the middle distance.

“You okay?” Blue prompted.

Rumor blinked and appeared to shake himself. “Yeah, just, that was fast, both the coming and the going. But yeah, I feel alright. Guess our hypothesis is definitely confirmed, huh?”

“I suppose so,” Ink said. There was an edge in his voice that spoke loud and clear that he wasn’t finished with this experiment.

“What? You aren’t satisfied?” Dream asked him. Blue and Dream each stopped their videos, and Blue hurried to text his to a few people.

Ink made a show of tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Well, it’s just that Rumor said he was already feeling curious. Would my paints be able to fully change his mood, or do they just put extra oomph into what’s already there?”

Rumor looked up eagerly. “I’m down to try more. What’s next?”

“I dunno, Rumor,” Dream sighed. “There might still be green paint in your system influencing your choices.”

“Alright, so you vote no, Ink votes yes,” Rumor said. He looked to Blue.

Blue looked back at him for a moment, then pointed his phone at him again. “I say yes. What other emotions you got, Ink?”

Ink smiled widely and ran a hand over his sash as he recited, “Sadness, calm, disgust, anger, confidence, happiness—”

“Let’s go with disgust,” Blue determined. “You aren’t feeling particularly disgusted at the moment, are you, Rumor?”

“Nah,” Rumor said. “Sounds good. And if we do end up trying them all, I wanna say right now that I wanna save the best for last, ‘kay?”

“We can do that,” Ink agreed. He handed Rumor the purple bottle.

With much less hesitation this time, Rumor dipped his finger in the bottle and popped it into his mouth as soon as he got the go-ahead from Blue and Dream.

The results were again instantaneous.

“Ugh, that was _gross_ ,” Rumor shuddered and shoved the bottle back into Ink’s waiting hands. “Haven’t tasted anything that bad since—wait, did I use the same finger as last time? EWW, ewew, ugh, I gotta wash my hands now!” Rumor snapped to his feet and bolted for the kitchen sink, where he pumped copious amounts of soap onto his bones. “Ink, you’re gonna wanna wash out those bottles! I can’t _believe_ I used the same finger, I’m so sorry, that’s was so gross of me—wait, you _just drank out of that earlier ohmigosh ewewewew_! I might’ve just drank your _spit_! That’s so . . . ! So . . . wait, what?”

Rumor blinked and looked down at his hands, which weren’t even visible underneath the amount of soap lathered onto his bones. Then he started to laugh.

The other three had been on the verge of busting already, and now all four skeletons howled with laughter.

“Who knew? Rumor’s a germophobe!” Ink cackled.

To his friends’ utter astonishment, Rumor didn’t deny it, or even blame it on the paint. Instead, he spluttered, “Not usually _that_ bad, c’mon, you guys.”

“What, y-you’re serious, aren’t you?” Blue gasped out between Mweh-heh-hehs. “Were you actually grossed out to use the same finger?”

Instead of answering, Rumor’s skull flushed in his embarrassment. “I did it anyway, didn’t I?”

He realized a moment too late that he was not helping his own case and clamped his mouth shut tight, blushing ever deeper.

Once he had calmed down to occasional giggles, Dream said, “You know, I wonder if Ink was right, in a way—I mean, obviously it _is_ a mood changer, but what if the paints just accentuate what’s already there? Because I’ve seen Ink with too much purple paint, and his disgust was . . . different.”

“Self-directed,” Ink explained with a shrug. “So yeah, maybe you’re right.”

Blue got a dangerous look in his eye, and Rumor unconsciously leaned away from him while he asked, “What’s with that face?”

Blue turned to Ink and snatched the red vial off his sash. “I wanna know what you’re secretly angry about.”

Rumor’s eyes widened. “Blue, I don’t—”

“Let’s not,” Dream interrupted, eager to put an end to the situation before it escalated. “If Rumor’s uncomfortable with it, we’re not doing it.”

Rumor paused, but then continued, “I was gonna say, I don’t have any secrets. But I know that negative emotions aren’t pleasant for you, Dream, so if you need to leave, that’s fine.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that,” Blue said apologetically.

“We can send you a recording, Dream,” Ink said. “We can test sadness while you’re gone, too. We’ll call you back in when we’re done.”

Dream chewed on his knuckle for a moment in indecision. He didn’t want them to use those particular bottles at all, but if Rumor was willing, then maybe it would be the best option. “Alright, just . . . only those two, alright? Call me back in as soon as they’re done.” The unspoken message of ‘Don’t go crazy with it while I, the only sane one, step out’ was heavy in the air.

“It’ll be fine, Dream,” Rumor said with a smile. “I’ll only take the smallest drop, like I have been.”

So Dream stepped out. He went to the opposite end of the house, actually, and tried to keep himself occupied by cleaning his bedroom.

It was scarcely ten minutes later when Blue was calling his name, and Dream had to conscientiously stop himself from running back. Instead, Dream walked quietly back into the kitchen.

Rumor smiled at him just as easily as when Dream had left, though there was a new box of tissues on the table that hadn’t been there before, and a few wadded up tissues were in the trash. Dream didn’t ask, but Rumor said, “It’s alright, Dream. It came and went, just like before.”

Ink looked rather bemused himself. When Dream looked at him, he shrugged. “Rumor’s right—he never kept any secrets from us. Besides the fact that he’s a slight germophobe and really hates it when the dirty dishes pile up.”

Rumor and Blue laughed, so Dream finally relaxed. “That’s good to hear. What’s left, Ink?”

Ink examined his sash again. “Hmm. Calm, confidence, happiness (which we’re saving for last)—”

“Let’s do calm,” Rumor interrupted.

“But you’re already calm,” Ink pouted.

Blue agreed, “Yeah, you’re like, the most chill person I know, Rumor. I’m like, 98 percent sure we’d all just sit here and stare at each other.”

“Alright, alright, fine,” Rumor laughed. He looked over Ink’s sash again. “Calm is blue, right? So we’ll skip that one. What’s pink? Confidence?”

“Well . . . kinda,” Ink said with a slow smile.

Dream gasped, “Ink, no.”

Blue grinned, “Ink, yes.”

Ink and Dream whirled on Blue, who shrugged. “I dunno what it does, but it’s gotta be good, right? Oooh, can I get to guess?”

Ink and Dream had a brief stare down while Rumor looked between the two of them a couple times. “I think I might have an idea of what it is, guys. And I’m just taking the smallest amount I can, remember? All I’ve done so far is talk, no action. Well, besides with disgust,” Rumor admitted with an embarrassed grin.

“That’s true,” Blue said. “Even with anger, he mostly just sat there looking ticked off until we asked him about it, and then he just talked about the dishes for, like, twenty seconds.”

Dream grimaced again, but eventually seemed to come to a decision. “Fine. But I want to be absolutely sure Rumor know what he’s signing up for.” He leaned in close to Rumor and whispered the secret emotion, and Rumor nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. It’s fine.”

“Okay,” Dream said, throwing up his hands. “It’s your choice.”

“I appreciate the thought, though, Dream. You’re so cool, you know?” Rumor said. Ink passed Rumor the pink vial, and Rumor—using his pinky finger this time, which everyone noticed but no one commented on it—showed much more caution to get as little of it as possible.

Rumor handed the vial back, the paint was absorbed, and he sat back in his seat at the kitchen table. After a few seconds with seeming no change, Blue prompted, “How you feeling, Rumor?”

Rumor looked down at the tabletop with a wistful expression. “I miss my little brother and sister. And the kiddo. She gets along so well with my little sister, and my sis always wanted a younger sibling, you know? And my folks absolutely doted on the kid—if the king and queen hadn’t adopted them, we would’ve next in line.”

Blue’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Regret . . . ?” he asked.

“Nah,” Rumor smiled up at him, and then his smile softened. “You guys are some of my best friends, you know? You’re all crazy and weird, but it’s been a real blast.”

“Attachment?” Blue guessed again.

Rumor shivered slightly as the paint left his system, but he smiled again, this time a little smaller than before. “Nah, dude, it was love.”

“Oh.” Blue pouted a moment that he was unable to guess it, but as it sunk in what _could_ have happened, and what Ink and Dream had clearly _expected_ to happen, he gasped a little. “OH.”

“You really love your family, Rumor,” Dream said, cutting off any awkward comments.

For his part, Ink was staring at him with purple and green question marks in his eyes. The artist laughed a little and shook his head. “You’re weird, Rumor.”

“I’m probably more normal than you think,” Rumor countered. “What’s next?”

“Confidence,” Ink said, handing him the orange bottle. “Probably not much change.”

Contrary to Ink’s assumption, there was a distinct shift in Rumor when the orange paint settled in. His shoulders squared up, and he made direct eye contact with each of his friends while he waited for them to say something.

Blue got an idea and smiled as he asked, “So, you’re a germophobe, huh?”

“So what?” Rumor asked. Gone was the blushing, spluttering skeleton and in his place was a hard, unflappable stare. “Everyone’s got their quirks. I mean, you’re addicted to your phone, Dream can’t stand negativity, and Ink’s literally soulless.”

“Oh snap,” Blue breathed, and then he giggled. His normally docile friend was finally speaking his mind! “So, the dishes . . . ?”

“We could make a system,” Rumor said in that firm, confident voice that was so unlike his norm. “If we rotate days, then I won’t feel like I’m stuck with them all the time. Except for Ink. He wouldn’t remember or have time, or he’d try to get out of it, so we’ll just leave him out.”

“HAH!” Dream snorted, but he slapped his hands over his teeth.

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” Ink shrugged, completely unashamed.

Rumor shivered again and his shoulders quickly dropped into his usual slouch. His eyes widened as he fully internalized what he’d said. “Oh jeeze, I’m sorry guys.”

Blue and then Dream burst out laughing again. “That was even better than anger!” Blue wheezed. “Aw man, we gotta try that one again sometime! You can throw _down_ when you want to, Rumor!”

This time, Ink didn’t wait for the others to calm down, just handed over the yellow vial. “Best for last,” he reminded.

“Best for last,” Rumor agreed.

The other two were still laughing, and Rumor knew that Ink wouldn’t care, so it was easy for Rumor to “accidentally” dip the entire length of his finger into the bottle. As he suspected, Ink only grinned when he took the bottle back, and Rumor quickly phased his finger through his teeth before the other two could catch on.

It had a pleasant, refreshing taste, and Rumor felt his smile widen, though it was a quiet joy, probably because Rumor was a quiet person.

Blue and Dream had finally calmed down. “Oh, did you already take it?” Blue asked. “How do you feel?”

“Good,” Rumor said simply. “Really, really good.”

Dream paused a moment and looked at him. Most of the other emotions were a mere shift in Rumor’s magical disposition, but this felt more drastic for some reason. Reluctant to start an unnecessary fight, Dream paused his video and rewound it. Though his hands had been shaking from his laughter, he caught the moment Rumor had taken his sample of yellow paint, and his fears were confirmed in the worst way.

“Rumor, you took too much,” he said quietly.

“Who cares?” Rumor laughed. “I just gave myself a little reward for the show. Ink doesn’t care.”

Dream whirled on Ink. “Why didn’t you stop him? That was a lot of paint, Ink! Who knows how long it’ll last! That’s not healthy!”

Ink shrugged. “I wanted to see what would happen. I doubt it’ll last as long as it does for me.”

“Dream, it’s fine,” Rumor said, his voice pitching up as if to giggle, but he clamped his teeth shut and took in a shaky breath.

“This is _not_ fine!” Dream shouted at Ink. “I _knew_ this was a bad idea!”

Blue put a hand on Dream’s arm. “Dream, calm down—just let him be happy! It’ll just wear off a little later, right?”

Dream took in a deep breath and calmed himself. “Let’s hope so.”

A few minutes dragged by, half tense silence and half snorts and giggles at Rumor’s huge smile. After about twice as much time as the other doses had passed, Rumor started giggling for no apparent reason.

“What’s so funny?” Blue asked, nervous now at how long this had gone on.

“I—heehee—I can’t s-s-s-pffheeheehee—” Tears appeared in the corners of Rumor’s eye sockets.

“Hey, are you alright?” Dream asked, reaching out to grasp Rumor’s shoulder.

“N-no,” Rumor gasped out between giggles. He grabbed the edge of the table as if to stabilize himself “I c-can’t stop ss-smiling o-or—heehee—laughing—it h-hurts!”

“Rumor, are you in _pain_?” Dream demanded.

Despite his strained smile and giggling, Rumor nodded.

Blue and Dream sprang out of their seats.

“Oh—oh crap, okay, let’s wash it down with something—”

“Painkillers, where do we keep the painkillers?”

Through it all, Ink just sat there and watched Rumor in fascination. Rumor was crying again, whether from too much happiness or whatever pain he was in. No one noticed Ink take an extra sip of green himself.

“Where does it hurt?” Ink asked curiously.

“S-s-soul!” Rumor gasped out.

“Oh. Makes sense. I’ve overdosed on everything at least once, but it never hurt _me_ before,” Ink mused. “Do you think it was the yellow paint alone or the fact that we did this all in one sitting?”

“ _Oh my_ _stars_ Ink, shut up!” Dream fumed. He was still digging through their medicine cabinet looking for painkillers. “We’ll ask questions later!”

“Yeah, I guess it’s hard for you to talk right now, huh?” Ink sighed.

If Rumor wasn’t busy laughing himself to death, he would’ve had some choice words for Ink, who was simply straightening his bottles while Blue and Dream were growing frantic in their search in the background. Tears blurred Rumor’s vision, not that he had possession of himself enough to stop Ink when he dipped Rumor’s finger into one last bottle.

Rumor tried to shout, but it came out as a shriek of laughter, and Blue and Dream just shouted reassurances back to him, at least until all the noise abruptly stopped. Then they whirled around and saw Ink pulling Rumor’s hand back down away from the poor skeleton’s teeth.

“What. Did you. Give him,” Dream demanded, marching over and grabbing Ink by the collar.

“A solvent,” Ink shrugged. “Should clear up the paint.”

Rumor shuddered and started tipping over, but Blue caught him by the shoulders and searched his hazy eyelights. “Rumor, can you hear me?”

“Mmh,” Rumor groaned, leaning into Blue’s touch and nearly pitching forward out of his seat.

Ink and Dream were arguing in the background, Dream very heatedly and Ink already sounding bored of the conversation. Their words seemed to run together to Rumor, and Blue’s face multiplied a few times, his voice nearly drowned out by the others.

“How . . . fingers . . . holding . . . ?”

Rumor realized he was catching every other word and filled in the gaps as Blue held up a few phalanges. He had enough presence of mind to know eight wasn’t the right answer. “Uh . . . four?”

Blue looked down at his two fingers and called, “Dream, this isn’t good.

Dream paused in the middle of his rant and huffed, “We’ll finish this later.” Coming to Rumor’s side, he checked the poor skeleton over. “I think we’d better take him to Sci. Can you help me carry him?”

Blue nodded and between him and Dream they were able to hoist Rumor up between them. Dream made a portal, and then threw a glare at Ink. “You coming or not?”

Ink hoped through his own ink and appeared on the far side of the portal, rushing off somewhere in the lab. Dream and Blue supported Rumor through the portal and to a bench in the waiting area. Dream prepared to go find Sci when the said skeleton was led into the room by Ink.

“What were you idiots doing this time?” Sci asked and he located his new patient.

“Being idiots,” Blue agreed. “Got curious about Ink’s paints, and if they’d affect other monsters. Turns out they do.”

Blue summarized their shenanigans, and Sci made him promise to share the videos later (for science), and then they got Rumor moved into the main lab. A few tests later, Sci determined that Rumor was fine; he was just in shock. The Star Sanses unanimously decided to take him back to his home universe to rest up, and Blue elected to stay with him, both to explain what had happened and to avoid the looming argument between Dream and Ink.

It took a solid day for Rumor to get back to his normal self. “It was my fault,” he told his friends once they had all gathered again. “You warned me, Dream, and I didn’t listen. It was a deliberate choice of mine, and I paid for it. So yeah, I’m never doing that again, but no harm, no foul. We all good?”

“Yep!” Blue said, absolutely relieved. Hopefully the fighting between his two friends would stop now.

“Fine,” Dream sighed.

Ink just smiled. “Thanks, Rumor. That was really fun!”

Dream smacked Ink upside the head. “You are never sharing your paints with anyone ever again. Got it?”

“Okay! Bye!” Ink disappeared in a puddle of ink.

Rumor, Blue, and Dream all exchanged glances.

“Did he even hear what you said?” Rumor groaned.

“As long as he doesn’t get me involved, I don’t care,” Dream sighed. “Not like I can stop him anyway.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ink by https://comyet.tumblr.com/  
> Dream by https://jokublog.tumblr.com/  
> Blue by community  
> Sci by https://talkingsoup.tumblr.com/  
> Rumor by me


End file.
